Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan said that he would seek a report from the state government over the brutal sexual assault and murder of a five-year-old girl in Aluva.
“ We have these kinds of incidents most unfortunate and I feel so sad and ashamed. The government may not be able to prevent everything. But the duty of the government is to take stringent action against such culprits. Such action will become an example and nobody will repeat similar offences in future,” he told media in New Delhi on Sunday.
Bihar native Asfaq Aslam has been arrested for sexually assaulting and murdering the girl. The five-year-old girl, the daughter of a couple from Bihar, was missing since Friday. Police found her body in an abandoned area near Aluva market on Saturday.
Maximum punishment
Meanwhile, Opposition parties have demanded the highest possible punishment for the accused.
Congress MLA Anwar Sadath said the government and the police should ensure that the accused get capital punishment. "As a people's representative and as a father that is what I want. I spoke to the Kerala CM yesterday and requested him not to see it as an isolated incident and end the probe.
"Parents everywhere are scared. So the government and the police need to be more vigilant to prevent the recurrence of such incidents," he said.
He became quite emotional while talking to reporters. Anwar Sadath said he never thought the child would be killed in such a horrific fashion. He, like many, was hoping that she would be found alive.
BJP leader Sobha Surendran also demanded stringent punishment for the accused and urged people to come out on the streets demanding the government take action to prevent such incidents from recurring.
Police deny charges
Kerala police chief Shaik Darvesh Saheb has denied the Opposition's charges of lapses on their part in tracing the child.
The police had on Saturday posted an apology to the victim's family on its social media handles saying that their efforts to reunite the child with her parents proved unsuccessful.
(With PTI inputs)
